REPORTING BUGS FOR FIRESTORM

****WHAT IS JIRA

JIRA is a web-based project tracker. It is our ticketing system for bug reports, improvement requests, new feature requests and support requests.

It gets its name from the Japanese movie monster Gojira (pronounced go-jee-ra), which we western saps pronounce Godzilla. If you want to know more, see their FAQ.
http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRA044/JIRA+FAQ

Our JIRA is divided up into several projects, three of which are important to us:
PHOE - Phoenix Viewer
FIRE - Firestorm Viewer
SUP - Support issues

The first two are used primarily for bug reports and feature or improvement requests.

The third is semi-private in that only you and the Phoneix team can see your issues. This is a dilemma since anyone else having the same issue can't benefit directly from solutions that may be provided on yours.

But at the same time, it allows you to add more personal information that you might not want to share with the rest of the world.

Each project contains one or more issues. An issue is a single topic. The issue number is the project abbreviation and a sequential number, like FIRE-4034.

Each issue contains all the information related to it, such as the reporter's system environment, steps to reproduce a failure event, attached files, even patches and possible solutions.

****LOOKING AROUND

When you launch JIRA you'll be taken to the system dashboard. It shows an activity stream with some of the recent comments made in the PHOE or FIRE projects, and a place to log in.

The page header is the same on every page in the JIRA. Let's look at what you will see, starting at the top:

Log In: This takes you to a log in page. When logged in, this shows your user name and links to your profile.

The pull-down lists various help documents. When logged in, also lists profile and log out links.

Quick Search: Pretty much self-explanatory. Enter search criteria and all the matching issues are displayed.

Along the red menu line:

Dashboard: Takes you to the system dashboard. When logged in, takes you to your personal dashboard.

The pull-down shows all available dashboards.

Projects: Takes you to the Browse Projects page initially. If you choose a project, then this button returns you there.

The Pull down shows the current project, any recent projects chosen, and a link to the Browse Projects page.

Issues: Takes you to the Issue Navigator, where you can search for issues and create saveable search filters.

The pull-down shows all your saved filters, as well as links to the filter manager and Issue Navigator.

Create Issue: Shows only when logged in, and allows you to create a new issue.

****GOING DEEPER

So there are two basic reasons to access JIRA: To search for issues and to create an issue.

Searching for an issue is pretty easy. You can enter search terms into the Quick Search field, then press Enter. This takes you to the Issue Navigator, and it shows all the results sorted by relevance.

You can also enter an issue number, like FIRE-4034, and it will display just that one issue.

So let's see if we can't find something. I'm sure at least one of you has experienced a Search window that's blank. So let's look for that. In Quick Search, enter the words SEARCH BLANK (caps aren't needed).

Currently, that brings several hundred issues. Note that this doesn't mean much since the words search and/or blank can show up literally anywhere.

But the most relevant will show up at the top, and I see that FIRE-11 is up there, and the summary says

"Search Box". Relevant to a blank search window? Probably. Let's find out.

The red text is a link to the issue. So click on either FIRE-11 or "Search Box" and you'll be shown that one issue.

OK, so we see all the information about this issue. Some is missing, and that's ok. The missing details were likely not important.

But we see that the user has problems with the search window, our developer couldn't reproduce the problem.

Now, when we say this, we're not trying to make you feel bad or anything. What we're trying to say is that the problem is likely not in the viewer, but exists somewhere else.

And our JIRA Queen, Whirly, has had more contact with users than our developers and has seen the problem before. She provided a possible solution.

We don't know if the solution worked for this user, but if I had this problem, then I would follow what Whirly said and check my own settings and PC.

Firestorm currently doesn't have a feature many people like, OTR (off the record) IM encryption. If you want to see how people asked to have it added, what should you do?
Go to Quick Search and enter OTR, then press Enter.

And there are about 11 issues currently that have one or both of those words somewhere.

Looking in the status column, we see several that are closed. You can still view these, and they may be linked to an open one that will be more helpful.

But let's just play with the filter to see how to use it for times when there might be far more results to sift through than this.

Along the left side you'll see some search filters. Scroll down a bit until you find Issue Attributes, then click that. Now a little further down is Status.

This is an inclusive filter, so only what you choose will be shown. And we want to see everything except Closed.

To do that, click Open inside the Status selector, then hold Ctrl and click the others (but not Any), but not Closed.

Now scroll to the window to the top or bottom and click on the Search button in the upper or lower left.

That should provide an idea of how to use a search filter. The one we're after is the most relevant, FIRE-1349. Click that one.

This has been assigned to a developer, so it's the one to watch. It has related issues linked to it, so we can keep track of all the other related issues. The issues that are struck out are closed.

Someone already asked for OTR. If you want to add your voice to this request, look in the upper right to find the People section. Click Vote and Watch.

Vote: Adds you as a supporter of this issue. You can click it again to un-vote. And you can't vote for your own issues.

Watch: This is also considered a vote, but it will send you an email whenever this issue gets a change. A change can be modification to the issue itself or comments added. Click again to un-watch.

And you'll want to add your own comment, but please be respectful.

We're at the point now where you need a jira account. You can't vote, watch, comment or create your own issue without an account.

****CREATE AN ACCOUNT

For those of you who already have an account, this is your coffee break.
For the rest of us: Go to the red menu and click Dashboards.

On the right side, in the login section, click on the Sign Up link.

Enter the following information:

- Username: Any username you wish. Your SL username would work, like mister.acacia (no spaces please)

- Password: I am a data security professional by trade, but I'll keep my rant short: your password should be unique and strong, 8 characters or more, not associated with you, and changed regularly.

- Confirm Password: Type your password in again.

- Full Name: Here we would really like to have your SL name. You might be very interesting in RL, but we need your SL name so we can contact you inworld if necessary

- Email: An address to which JIRA emails can be sent.
Click the Sign Up button. JIRA will complain if what you entered needs adjusting. Otherwise, you're all set.

OK, coffee break is over.

****CREATE AN ISSUE

Creating an issue is very easy, once you've logged in. On the right side of the red menu is the Create Issue link. If you don't see that, click Login at the top, or enter your credentials in the Login Section.

Clicking Create Issue pops up a little window asking for the Project and Issue Type you wish to create. Note that the issue type changes depending on the project.

Your choices are:
FIRE or PHOE
- Bug
- New Feature
- Task
- Improvement
- Epic
- Story
- Support Request
- Deprecated
- Translation
- Documentation
SUP
- Support Request

For the most part, you're only going to need to use Bug, New Feature, Improvement or Support Request. Note that these can be changed, so if you create a Bug issue and just tell a story, then it will be changed to Story.

Once you've picked a project and issue type, click Create. From here, the data entry screen is identical no matter the issue type, so let's look at the fields:

Summary - This is where you put a brief title of the issue. Don't add all your information here, just a few words to describe the issue.

Priority - This is set by default to Major, change it as necessary. Please be honest about this, if you have a trivial bug that really doesn't hamper your SL experience, don't call it a blocker.

SL Avatar Name - Your SL name, of course.

Patch Attached - If you are contributing a patch, then please check this box.

Reported In - Choose which viewer you're using. It can be different than the one that has the issue.

Affects Version/s - This is where you want to identify which viewer is directly affected. For mesh issues, obviously, you don't want to select a non-mesh viewer.

Environment - This one is very important for SUP issues and bug reports. This can come from any viewer that opens and shows you a log on screen. If you can get to Help > About, you can get your system info. Paste it here.

Description - Here is where you want to add details about the issue. If you can reproduce the issue by following some sequence, then document that sequence here.

If your issue affects only one of your avatars, note that as well. Everything you can think of that will help us understand the issue clearly should be added here.

Attachment - If you have a patch, or if your problem can be illustrated by a screenshot, select it here. More than one can be added. If your viewer is acting up, attach your viewer logs here.

Please try not to add just a picture and expect it to tell us the whole story. What you perceive as wrong may be different than what we perceive. So describe the issue and use the picture to help.
Labels - Use this to add searchable labels to the issue. Don't go overboard with this. If it has nothing to do with voice, for example, don't add a voice label.

Finally, and we're not going to do it, you would click the Create button, and your issue would be created. You would be shown the issue number, and you will get emails when the issue is changed or updated.

And I have a bit of a rant about issues. Too often someone will open an issue, we will either offer some help or ask for additional information. But the person never responds and we end up closing the issue as incomplete.

Was the user helped? I don't know.
So if you create an issue, please check it when you get an email. Add your comment, follow the steps we suggest and let us know the result, or add the information we requested.
And if you don't get an email, please check anyway in case there was an email snafu. We're happy to help with that, too.